inky cap?

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Mycology Alert! 

It has only been a week since Ijams volunteer naturalist Nick Stahlman raised our M.A.Q. (Mushroom Awareness Quotient) and now that we are looking...look what we found under the solar panels by the greenhouse: a colony of Shaggy Mane Inky Caps (Coprinus comatus).

Visible mushrooms are the above ground fruiting bodies of the much larger fungi that lives below the surface.

Some "shrooms" are remarkably ephemeral by nature. (Shameless book plug.) In less than 24 hours this cluster of inky caps has gone through their above ground maturation which ends with the mushroom's gills dripping liquid black spores that look like ink. Hence the name.

Nick is currently working on an Ijams mushroom checklist for us. He is a 2016 graduate of the TN Naturalist@Ijams program that we teach: 40 hours of classes, 40 hours of volunteering.

Interested in next year's series? Call Lauren about the 2018 class at 577-4717, ext. 135.

Nick Stahlman photo by Kristy Keel-Blackmon 

All that was left is an inky black spot. 

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